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Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
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Graphics & Sound:
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is a beautiful game. Well, that is, it can be a beautiful game... if you have the hardware to support it. Despite the amazing screenshots I've seen that show just how amazing Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance can look, my machine required me to turn pretty much all of the whiz-bang graphical options way down. Mind you, my PC is no longer a cutting-edge game rig, but other games to date haven't required me to turn everything down nearly as much as this game did. And, while my computer may be a bit under-powered for the latest PC games these days, it is interesting to note that there is a note on the back of the box that points out that even the recommended system requirements only provide an optimal experience for single player and up to 4 players on medium map size, while the game can support up to 8 players and large maps.
I didn't play the first Supreme Commander, but as I understand it, the graphics have been greatly improved. There is a lot of detail on-screen and you can, and will, often have to zoom all the way from ground level to world map and back in the course of the game, which Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance handles very nicely.
The sound effects are pretty good, especially the bass range on the weapon sounds; you'll want to play Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance through a sub-woofer to enjoy their full effect. The only problem I've had with the sound in Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance was that it would sometimes experience lag when the action got absolutely insane... which was quite often.
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Gameplay:
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance takes place shortly after the end of the original Supreme Commander, when a new alien menace has been introduced and sworn enemies forge a delicate alliance to fight together against the new, common foe... hence, " Forged Alliance."
The idea behind Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is to take command of a futuristic army via your ACU (Armored Command Unit). There are different win conditions that can be selected in Skirmish and Multiplayer games, and the win conditions in Campaign mode are driven by the story, but there is one constant losing condition: having your ACU destroyed. Almost anything else can be overcome, given time, but if you lose your ACU, that's all she wrote.
Like other RTS games, you'll need to create units, give them commands, repair them, refuel them, and build and upgrade installations, such as factories and defense installments. The main difference here seems to be the length of time it can take to create new units. Unit creation in Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance seems to be longer than in other games, and it always seems overly difficult to try to amass enough units to counter the enemy's units. It is important and helpful to employ strategy in the selection of units to create; creating Engineer units early on can help to reduce your creation time by having them assist in the creation of other units, for example. It is also important to weigh the decision between creating level 1 units and upgrading your factories (which can take a long time) to enable you to create more powerful units.
During the course of the game, you'll want to zoom between close-up views and global map views, in order to allow you to see the whole picture as well as the important local details. Controls to do this zooming are easy; simply use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom out to the map view and then point to where you want to zoom in and scroll your mouse's scroll wheel back the other direction. Additionally, you can select an inactive unit via its icon on the right side of the U.I. and, optionally, instantly zoom to a close zoom centered on that unit. This can prove useful when jumping between controlling different Engineer units and your ACU when you're actively creating units or structures.
When playing in Campaign mode, your missions will be assigned to you as events occur, and you're expected to quickly adapt to these newly added missions. Each mission has a representative icon in the top right corner of the screen. These icons are much like those of inactive units; clicking on them will cause your view to instantly zoom to the location of the mission's objective. Be warned that sometimes multiple missions are strung together on the same battlefield, with one mission being revealed only after the other has been completed. This, unfortunately, means that you can't simply make a final charge, hoping to overwhelm the enemy with your current army, because after you win the fight, you'll be in a horrible position to try to continue the war. As fast as the A.I. opponents build and amass units, the real trick to playing Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance seems to be taking your time. I played one mission in Campaign mode that pitted me against forces that seemed impossible to overcome. So, at about two hours into the game, I upgraded my land unit factory and queued up a whole host of units to create... then left the game running while I went out to dinner. When I came back from dinner, the units were still being created, but I had a sizable army to command. I began a strike to finish off the enemy's stronghold. They made a desperate strike that took out my factory, but I healed up my ACU a bit and then ran to join the final strike. And I did. And victory was mine. Then, I found myself in the same battlefield, surrounded by the rubble from war machines, both from my army and that of my enemy, with only a handful of tired, over-exerted units by my side... and I find out that I have a new mission, with two allied enemies who greatly outnumber the forces I just defeated. I tried to cut off their entrance to me. I tried to start over with a new land unit factory. I even got it built, but they had advanced aerial units and I had... well, I had no chance.
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Difficulty:
As I mentioned above, I didn't play the original Supreme Commander, but I am not a stranger to real time strategy games. I have played and enjoyed games such as Civilization and Settlers, but I found Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance to be so difficult as to not be fun to play. The above mentioned games can be just as difficult, but they at least provide an easy setting that is, actually, easy. Or, at least, reasonable. Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, on the other hand, is difficult, even with the difficulty on its lowest setting. There are some options in the Game Options menu that can make gameplay a bit easier, such as using prebuilt units (initial base setup) and turning off cheating or changing the victory conditions. All this having been said, this game is difficult to the point of being frustrating. If you are familiar with the original, then this might be a natural evolution, but if you are approaching this game as an original experience, as I was, then you might find this game to be more difficult than you would expect.
The very fact that some of the A.I.s you can choose to play against are actually called, "Cheating A.I.s," should serve as a warning. If you aren't phased by that, you're likely to get worried when your Skirmish game starts and you notice that your opponents scores automatically begin increasing before you can even begin to take an action with your ACU. I lost several Skirmish games in a row until I finally tried adding in an ally. My first win against the A.I. was a two-on-one game with/against A.I. opponents.
To me, it seems obvious that not only is Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance too difficult, but that the developers knew that it was too difficult; in the Campaign mode, you can't attempt missions until you reach them, much like in other games, but if you fail at a mission, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance gives you the option to simply "Skip" the mission and continue to the next one in the Campaign. Essentially, the game gives you an "A" for Effort.
I'm not saying that this game isn't perfect for someone out there, but I have no doubt that a lot of people who enjoy RTS games will find Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance to be beyond challenging and more in the realm of frustrating. |
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Game Mechanics:
While Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is a pretty game, its hardware requirements are a bit over-the-top. That and the fact that its difficulty is extremely high takes this game to a rarely seen level of frustration. The fact that Campaign mode lets you skip a mission when you fail it may seem like a good idea at first (hell, it may be a good idea), but the fact that the game is so difficult that this feature is needed is really bad. This is not the first game to be difficult to play, but there is a process of playtesting and balancing a game that can fix this. While I know that my skills in Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance are pretty low, the game gives me no real reason to want to improve them - at least not enough to put in the hours of gameplay that would be required.
Another issue I have with Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is that the game's time-scale seems a bit off. Rather than feeling like a RTS about war, it felt more like I was having to build my own little civilization just to get new units to fight with. The game requires that you not only build factories, but mine for energy and materials, armaments... and then if you want decent fire-power, you'll need to upgrade your factories and, perhaps, your ACU, as well. It feels like you're being required to build a castle before you can mount an attack on your opponent's castle, only with sci-fi weaponry instead of siege weaponry.
The user interface is slick, but the hardware requirements, overbearing difficulty and gameplay that seems to drag on (when you're doing good) and/or end surprisingly suddenly (when you mess up) affect an unwelcomed frustration level that will likely turn many would-be fans to other, more forgiving, games. |
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-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins |
Minimum System Requirements:
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Vista, 1.8 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 8 GB available hard drive space, 128 MB video RAM or greater, with DirectX 9, Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0 support (ATI 9600+, Nvidia 6200+), Sound card, Internet connection with Cable / DSL speeds.
Recommended System Requirements:
3.0 GHz Intel or equivalent AMD processor or better, 1 GB RAM or better, 8 GB available hard drive space, 256 MB video RAM, with DirectX 9 Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0 support (Nvidia 6800 or better), Internet connection with Cable/DSL speeds. |
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Test System:
Sony VAIO VGC-R820G:
Intel Pentium 4E, 3.2 GHz (Intel Grantsdale i915), 1 GB RAM, AMI BIOS, Realtek HD Audio, Radeon X300 Series (128 MB), 200 GB 7200 RPM, Serial-ATA/150 Maxtor HD, DVD-ROM, Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108, Sony SDM-HS73 Monitor, Floppy disk drive, Cable Modem. |
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